Cutting the Cord
A Jesuit Says Goodbye to the Abortion Party
by Terry Mattingly
It was sometime during the hearings into whether Judge Priscilla Owen was fit to serve on the US Court of Appeals that Father John F. Kavanaugh faced a hard question.
All 10 Democrats on the US Senate Judiciary Committee voted against her and killed her recent nomination, even though the Texas Supreme Court Justice received the American Bar Association’s highest ranking. The problem was that she favored restraints on abortion rights, including parental-notification laws.
“This was the first time in history that someone with her qualifications had been rejected in committee,” said the nationally known Jesuit writer. “I couldn’t believe it. . . . That was when I had to ask: Why am I still a registered Democrat?”
Kavanaugh poured his feelings into a column in which he argued that it’s time for Catholics to cut the political ties that bind and register as independent voters. While the priest stressed that he believes Catholic Republicans may also need to declare their freedom, he entitled his provocative piece “Goodbye, Democrats.”
It helps to know that Kavanaugh is an old-school progressive, the author of books with titles such as “Following Christ in a Consumer Culture,” “Faces of Poverty, Faces of Christ” and “Who Counts as Persons? Human Identity and the Ethics of Killing.” This is one Jesuit who would never “wrap a rosary” around a conservative agenda.
Kavanaugh said he remains firmly opposed to GOP doctrine on tax cuts, labor laws, welfare reform, the death penalty, and a host of other issues. In the past decade, he noted, Democrats have compromised on all of those issues. But there is one issue on which his old party has steadfastly refused any compromise.
“One thing the Democrats really stand for, however, is abortion—abortion on demand, abortion without restraint, abortion paid for by all of us, abortion for the poor of the earth,” wrote Kavanaugh. “I am not a one-issue voter, but they have become a one-issue party. . . . If traditional Democrats who are disillusioned with the selling out of the working poor and the unborn simply became registered Independent voters, would not more attention be paid?”
In recent national elections, researchers have been watching for any signs that America’s 60 million Catholics are changing their voting habits.
For generations, Frost Belt Catholics have been a crucial part of all Democratic coalitions. Today, Catholic trends are crucial in an era when Hispanic voters are gaining clout in Sunbelt politics. Thus, it matters that nearly three-fifths of the Catholics who said they frequently went to Mass voted for George W. Bush in 2000.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on abortion from the online archives
19.1—January/February 2006
on Death & Seven of the Last Words of Socrates by Graeme Hunter
24.1—January/February 2011
How Planned Parenthood's Founder Played the Christians, and Won by Allan C. Carlson
30.3—May/June 2017
on the Misuse of Property Rights to Justify Slavery & Abortion by Robert Hart
more from the online archives
32.2—March/April 2019
Reality Shows, Even in a Popular TV Series by C. E. Smith
15.6—July/August 2002
Things Hidden Since the Beginning of the World
The Shape of Divine Providence & Human History by James Hitchcock
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
